CAT reports first loss since '92, cuts forecast

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:CAT - News), the world's largest maker of construction and mining equipment, reported its first quarterly loss in 17 years on Tuesday, pulled into the red by more than half a billion dollars in charges from its wave of recession-triggered layoffs.

The company also slashed its full-year earnings and sales forecast, sending its shares lower in early trading.

Q5: How do you expect the U.S. stimulus package to impact
Caterpillar?
A:

The infrastructure portion of the stimulus package was
disappointing in that it was less aggressive than other
countries and missed an opportunity to correct past
underinvestment in U.S. infrastructure. For example,
China, with an economy one-third the size of the
United States, is allocating over three times as
much for infrastructure and initial results from
this package look promising.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Caterpillar-Responds-to-Sharp-prnews-14981411.html

Caterpillar work underway; SEDC officials say work right on track

(Seguin) — Construction crews will soon be moving dirt at the Caterpillar plant site. Seguin Economic Development Director Terry Trevino says that different crews and offices have been hard at-work since the Caterpillar groundbreaking in January to prepare for the construction of the new engine plant in Seguin.

“We’ve actually been laying out the groundwork for Caterpillar for some time, and we’ve been working on implementing and getting all the incentives through the state as well as at the local level, tying up the loose ends with regards to getting the performance agreement done, but in addition to that, they’ve basically been working with their engineering and their general contractor to try to get the layout of the building and everything just right,” said Trevino.

“In the last few weeks, there has been some pretty drastic changes to the building configuration. They kind-of turned it around and moved parking lots and stuff, which impacted their drainage and their engineering layouts. That kind-of detained the project a couple of weeks as far moving dirt and starting construction.”

Trevino says the general contractor should soon go out to bid for sub-contractors to work on the site, and local residents should soon see dirt being moved fairly soon.

“We should see them probably moving some earth pretty quickly in the next couple of weeks,” said Trevino. “The deal is definitely still on. We’re excited about it. The city, the mayor, everybody is just really enthusiastic. We’re just as anxious as everybody else to get all this paperwork done so we can continue to move forward.”

The Seguin Economic Development Corporation, along with city, county and state officials worked for several months to seal the deal that is bringing the Caterpillar engine plant to the Seguin area. Trevino says that the project is a $170 million project that will pump, directly and indirectly, approximately $600 million into the local economy.

It’s taken a while for the construction on the plant to begin and that’s made some people in town nervous, but Trevino says that unlike the Lowe’s deal that fell through a few years ago, this project is right on track.

“On our end, we’ve done a lot of work. We’ve done a lot of post-announcement work with the state and with the Enterprise Fund and Enterprize Zone. We’re working in all the incentives we promised them in December. I have really been working very hard, and my staff and the city and everybody involved, we’ve really had a team effort in moving forward with this. From our end, we’re not nervous at all. It’s just been a lot of work and go go go in a short period of time,” said Trevino.

The plant is expected to be partially operational later this year, and become fully operational in 2010.

http://www.kwed1580.com/kwed/display/

Yeah Thats Him

That’s my Hometown.

Was origionaly Walnut Branch

Renamed Seguin to honor the Hero.

He Rode a horse down Court Street in a parade and thanked the town. He is buried beneath the oaks in our fair city.

I actually live right next door to one of the places Sam Houston campaigned for President of the Republic while he stayed in Seguin.

Long Live Texas!

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